The Linemakers

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LAS VEGAS -- Nevada sports books have lost only two Super Bowls in the 22 years the state's gaming commission has been keeping official records, even though the Steelers and Cowboys back in 1979 middled nearly every legal and illegal book in the world with a 4-point decision. Sunday’s affair between the Ravens and 49ers produced mixed results around Las Vegas, but a few sports books found themselves on the short end of a losing day.

"I’m just glad that the football season is finally over,” said LVH SuperBook vice-president Jay Kornegay. “It just seemed whatever we booked on Sunday, we were on the wrong side.”

While the popular public parlay pairing the dog money line to the over was a bad result for books, Kornegay’s loss on Super Bowl Sunday was spurred by losses on the props.

“It was like Murphy’s Law props for us. Everything that could possibly go wrong for us happened on the props,” said Kornegay. “It was the second time in the last three years we lost on the props. Between the game going OVER (48) and the 41 different props on Colin Kaepernick going against us, it turned out terrible for us.”

Kaepernick threw for 302 yards, rushed for 62 more and ran for a touchdown, giving many bettors their money’s worth on their wagers. They got to see what they wanted out of the phenom and cashed in by betting OVER 235.5 yards passing and OVER 48.5 yards rushing.

“It got worse at the end of the game when the 49ers got a safety at the end of the game,” said Kornegay. “We had the last scoring play of the game with a safety being 75-to-1, which people love to play just because the odds are so high, and 9-to-1 that a safety would happen at all during the game, which people always bet ’Yes’.”

Up north in Reno, the Peppermill thought it was going to have to fend off 49ers action with plans of keeping the number higher than Las Vegas, but the action didn’t allow them to.

“We had a record handle on the game,” said Peppermill sports book director Terry Cox. “The most surprising thing about it all was that we got way more Ravens money than anticipated. But in the end we still had a great day. Between the game itself and posting the futures — where the 49ers were bad for us — we did well.”

“We just let the money tell us where to go,” said Cox, who initially opened the 49ers high at -6.5. “When it seemed like we were ready to make a move higher, we’d get Ravens money that balanced us out. We got as high as -5, but closed at -4.5.”

The consensus around Las Vegas closed at 49ers -4.5 or 4. But the big killer was the Ravens getting +155 or +160 on the money-line parlayed to the OVER. Despite the Ravens’ money line offering about 20 percent less value than what a regular-season game would offer on the dog, bettors still took the plunge and cashed in.

The Ravens were the fifth dog to cover in the last six Super Bowls and the ninth in the last 12 years.

Final Nevada results will be revealed late Monday or Tuesday by the Nevada Gaming Commission, and we’ll have a report when announced. All indications are that it’s going to be a small win overall.